DoD News

News Article

Program Empowers Absentee, Overseas Citizen Voters

By Amaani LyleAmerican Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2012  Officials have developed a robust program to ensure absentee military and overseas citizens have the necessary tools to cast their votes, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said today.

As Election Day nears, the Federal Voting Assistance Program has taken a global, innovative and user-friendly approach, including measures mandated by Congress to assist voters, Little said during a Pentagon news conference.

“The assistance we provide is completely nonpartisan,” Little said. “The Federal Voting Assistance Program strives to ensure that every absent military and overseas citizen voter has the tools and resources to receive, cast and return an absentee ballot and have it counted.”

Program enhancements include the establishment of more than 200 installation voter assistance offices and assistance officers available worldwide for every unit, in every service, including in Afghanistan and aboard deployed ships, Little explained.

“Between the installation offices and these unit-level voting officers, the department assisted more than 500,000 service members in the first six months of this year alone,” he said.

Officials, Little added, not only assist absentee voters in untangling the complex process, but DOD has developed an unprecedented social media campaign to inform absentee service members and overseas citizen voters of these resources.

To date, there have been nearly 600,000 downloads for absentee voting registration materials from the Federal Voting Assistance Program’s website, Little noted.

Absentee voters can see their unit voting assistance officers, contact their state board of election or reach the Federal Voting Assistance Program at http://www.fvap.gov or by phone at 1-800-438-VOTE(8683).